Sprawling spreadsheets and follow-up invoices can turn any dream career into a nightmare.
That’s especially true when you own your own business, like many tour operators and travel agents do. You may spend most of your waking hours juggling back-office work, such as designing marketing materials, tracking your company’s expenses and reminding your customers to pay their balances. All this work is important, but wearing so many hats at once can lead to stress and burnout, or worse, poor business outcomes.
Here are a few strategies you can implement to reduce back-office work so you can get back to doing what you do best: planning and leading great trips.
Rely on AI
AI generates a lot of buzz these days, and many tour operators may be unsure of where to start putting it to use. But they’ll find that AI is great for reducing back-office work because of its ability to streamline and handle menial tasks. If you’re spending loads of time coming up with clever social media copy to post on each platform, AI can shorten that work time to just a few minutes by giving you some copy that needs only a few adjustments. Or it can generate a sample itinerary to give you a head start on your research into a new destination. From marketing to product creation, AI can help with just about every sphere of your business. Just remember that nothing AI generates is ready for publication without fact-checking — and that it’s no substitute for human creativity or connection.
Implement Automation
Travel business owners are spoiled for choice when it comes to tech platforms in today’s world. There’s software for just about every back-office business need, from bookkeeping to itinerary creation to customer relationship management. Sometimes all this choice leaves tour operators with a tech stack a mile high (or maybe it even keeps them too overwhelmed to use any tech at all). That’s where automation comes in. Business owners should choose tech solutions that integrate well with each other to automate as many processes as possible.
For example, planners may want to choose CRM systems, trip registration tools and e-commerce platforms that all integrate with each other. An ideal automation flow would register the customer for the trip, report their purchase to the business’s bookkeeping software, message the customer to remind them of their balance due and then log the transaction in the CRM.
Delegate When Possible
When your business grows, its needs grow, too. You can’t expect to take on 10 times your current customer base as an army of one. Many tour operators and travel agents are used to wearing all the hats in their businesses, but that’s not always sustainable in the long run. Delegating can be the answer that keeps you sane and keeps your business running smoothly.
There are several options here. First, you can hire somebody to be on your team on a permanent basis. Personal assistants, social media managers, bookkeepers, marketing strategists and even additional guides can make wonderful assets to your team. You can also contract out some of the work with popular freelancing platforms, like Fiverr and Upwork, or simply by contacting others in your network. Virtual assistants may be another good choice if you’re not picky about where your assistant works. You may find that an online assistant across the world can manage your calendar just as effectively as one in your office.
Reevaluate Your Task List
If you’re ever feeling overwhelmed by the back end of your business, it may be worth reevaluating your priorities as a business owner and, consequently, your task list. Everybody gets stuck in their ways from time to time, which is why it’s important to periodically check your task list for cumbersome tasks that aren’t yielding big benefits. Do you stress out trying to print and mail paper materials to your travelers when most of them end up just looking at a digital itinerary? Conversely, are you trying to roll out some tech that your travelers just aren’t using? Look at the ROI on many of your business’ menial tasks, and you might find that there are some traditions that aren’t worth holding on to.
Lean on Industry Partners
Picture this: You’re building an itinerary to a new destination, and you’re trying to pick the perfect spot for a welcome dinner. You spend hours surfing through Google searches and vetting customer reviews only to find that your top choice is closed for renovations. Sound frustrating? It doesn’t have to be, because there are resources that would have been able to give you that information right off the bat. Investing in relationships with industry partners, such as CVBs, DMCs, and state and regional tourism boards, can be a huge time-saver.
To build the best relationships, you can attend tradeshows and conferences and meet with the right representatives, check in with them on social media, and participate in any FAMs they may offer. Next time you’re putting together an itinerary, simply send them an email, and they can give you a curated list of resources.
